The Assault On Ore's Tash'n
by Sky Capatanio
Summary: As the Tau explore through the galaxy they set their eyes on the Imperial planet of Kronus. Shas'o Kais and his elite cadre front the invasion at the capital city. However they have no idea how furious the fighting will be.Thirty years before Dark Crusade
1. Prologue

I know this is short but it's just the prologue. Constructive criticism welcome. Later chapters will be longer. Also for anyone who has played Dawn of War Dark Crusade, at this stage Shas'o Kais has normal amour and no battle suit. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prologue

Shas'o Kais looked of the narrow viewing slit in the barricade made out of the remains of the barracuda his cadre had flew in on. As soon as they were in scanning distance they had been pelted by a lucky lascannon shot, which punched a hole through the middle of the ship eviscerating six of his men and splitting the ship in half. One part of it had spiralled off in to the ork horde's piece of land where the survivors would be found and put to death. The men were told to hold for two days, and by that time hammerhead gunships would have been dropped. Now at two weeks past the designated time, rumours started to spread that the vehicle-carrying -barracudas had been shot down as well. He took a tin box out of his pack and started sharing his last rations between his men. They all looked the same to him except for the remaining kroot. Most of the kroot had been on the other half of the barracuda. He had soon gotten used to the continuous sound of the Imperial guardsmen wasting their ammo on the barricade. They heard a scream from above them. Shas'la Kaieel fell from the second story with a soft groan. The barracuda had smashed into the front of a manufactorum, blocking the ground floor. Shas'o Kais stared at his corpse noticing the war torn sky reflected in his glistening sightless eyes. "Goran take his rail rifle and get up there" Kais said. He felt as if he had fitted a noose around Goran's neck. The troopers were all silent. Shas'ui Goran had been the heart and morale of the cadre. Goran did not look back as he climbed the stairs. There was a soft metallic _swish_ followed by a lot of shouting behind Kais. He turned and grabbed the offending trooper in a deadly arm lock twisting it up his back until the trooper dropped his knife. "What is this about?" asked Kais. "Vordan was disrespecting Kaieel sir," answered the trooper. Kais recognized him as Kaleel, Kaieel's birth-brother. While they shared bonds birth-brothers were never as close as Ta'lissera brothers. "That didn't give you the right to draw a knife on him Kaleel. And you Vordan" he said turning "One more thing about Kaieel and you'll be the one on the ground dismissed". Kais was one of the few who knew about their difficult relationship. When Vordan had decided to become his brother through the ritual of the Ta'lissera and Kaieel had refused they had become bitter rivals. Kaleel picked up his brothers body and carried it to the back of the building. Seventeen lay dead already and only forty four were left. Three kroot lay dead as well. Not killed by the imperials but killed by the tau themselves. The three kroot had tried feeding off the bodies and had been caught. There had been thirteen dead Tau before that fight. All in all things looked gloomy. "Fix-bayonets" the call came from across the battlefield. "Prepare yourselves men." Kais said. "Fight and Die for The Greater Good!"


	2. Defences

This chapter introduces another of the main characters. The last part was written when I was eight so sorry if it wasn't up to standerds.

Defences

Kor'vre Keren was used to space. The wide plain of blackness speckled by stars and coloured by ever-shifting nebulas held no excitement for him. He had lived most of his life aboard the flagship _Pride Of Bork'an _and had adjusted to the cramped conditions of the ship and the shifting vistas of space. Their were lights flashing all around the bridge. That, noone ever adjusted to.

"Kor'el Anuan" Keren said approaching him. "We have a Glaive class missile fired from the surface of the planet."

"Dammit!" the captain cursed. "Activate all defece weapons. Shields to maximum!" Men rushed around to follow his orders. Something hit the ship. Keren almost fell over and Anuan gripped the arms of his chair.

"Was that the missile?" Anuan asked.

"No it was something else. Something smaller" Keren responded. One by one every console in the bridge shut down.

"Status report!" Anuan shouted.

"Weapons down!" called a man.

"Shields down!" called another.

"All electrical equipment down. We're floating dead. There's nothing stopping the missile!" Keren told the captain. The captain's face was grim.

"Get to the drop pods. The captain will go down with his ship." The bridge was cleared in minutes. A loan figure remained in his seat. The missile hit. The Glaive anti-ship misssile was the most affective anti-ship missile ever conceived. It was seperated in to three parts. The front exploded creating a hole in the side of the ship, simultaneously the back exploded proppeling the middle, and the main explosion into the middle of the ship. It was obliterated. Most of the drop pods were caught in one of the explosions. Except for one. Keren was inside. It hurtled towards Ore's Tash'n.

---

The Imperials came pouring from their trenches across the battlefield and toward the manufactorum. The Commisar ran at the front waving his sword and screaming to his men until his head was burst by a super-sonic round.

"Good work Goran!" Kais shouted up to him.

"No problem" Goran said back to him.

"Men! Open fire!" Kais ordered. Every window in the building lit up with blue (or in the kroot's case yellow) flares. Imeperials fell right and left but their charge did not falter. Soon they had reached the windows and poured into the building.

"Draw knives!" Kais screamed. Evreywhere in the building became a whirl of limbs. Attached and detached. The kroot didn't even use their rifle blades. They simply tore the weaker soldiers apart with their bare hands. The rife blades were reserved for stronger enemies.

Goran leapt down from the 2nd floor and ran into the fray. Crouching under a swinging bayonet he leapt up and gave the owner an upercut to the jaw. Grabbing the gun he wrenched away from it's owner's hands and spun it around and that was when he saw the Imperial's face. He was very young. About 18 earth years. Without a second thought he thrusted the bayonet into the man's chest. The las-gun stuck fast and Goran fired two shots blasting the man of the knife. Drawing his pulse rifle he spun around a gun braced against each shoulder. Pulling both triggers he began clearing out the manufactorum. The Imperials did not retreat however until the other men from upstairs reinforced the troops downstairs. They fled back across the battlefield.

"Is that it? Are they done?" Kais said. Suddenly there was a terrible trembling in the ground. A dreadnought approached. That confirmed it. The adeptus astartes were on this planet. The dreadnought's autogun started chattering, punching through the walls and several men. Everyone hid and hoped it wasn't their turn to go. The firing didn't stop. And then suddenly there was a terrific smash. It felt like the entire ground was protesting against some massive weight. The firing had stopped. Peaking his head out Kais did not belive what he saw. There was flaming fragments of the machine everywhere. In it's place stood a drop-pod. The men left the shelter of the manufactorum as the drop-pod opened. A single man stumbled out.

"Well nice of you to drop in" said Goran. The man laughed.


	3. Breaking The Stalemate

Thanks for your reviws. Keep 'em coming. I'll try to keep chapters at 1000 words and 1 chapter a week but no promises.

Breaking The Stalemate

As the men walked back to their posts Keren explained the situation to Kais.

"There's at least one more anti-ship silo on the planet that has not been neutralized. Analysis from the missile launched at my ship shows that something took down all electrical systems. We have discovered an E.M.P cannon somewhere in Ore's Tash'n. Somewhere near this position. If this cannon continues it could destroy the whole fleet." Keren told him.

"Can't we just bomb the heck out of it?" Goran said stripping down his Pulse rifle.

"I'm afraid not." the pilot told him. "The E.M.P cannon is in an underground location. The only time it is exposed is when it fires and no captain would be crazy to try hitting it then."

"So" Kais said. "You want us to break through this stalemate, continue through enemy lines, sneak into a top security Imperial base and destroy this emp cann--

"It's pronounced E.M.P" Keren interupted.

"Whatever" Kais said. "You want us- half a cadre- to do this. With no support and no extraction. How do you even know about this?"

"The drop-pod was linked to fleet command." Keren answered him.

"Then we can call for support and get--" Kaleel started.

"No it was severed when I hit the walker." Keren cut him off.

"So" Vordan said, hopping of an ammo crate. "Who's ready to face certain death?"

"Ok so Keren." Kais said angrily. "You expect us to brake off our push into the capital and go on some wild grox-chase because you dropped out of the sky and told us to?"

"Fine" Keren said, raising his hands. "Oh and by the way the orders came to me from fleet so I hope your firing squad is friendly."

"Kais?" Vordan said "Is it just me or whenever we have to face certain death we get threatened with certain death? At least taking out the cannon would help the fleet."

Sighing Kais said "Ok Keren we'll do your job but one thing."

"Oh and what's that?" Keren questioned.

"How in the greater good are we supposed to break the stalemate?" He said.

"Ah well" Keren smiled with a conspiratorial wink. "I'm glad you brought that up."

*

Goran inched across the field on his stomach. The rubble scrapeing against his chestplate sounded like a thousand demons of the warp to him. He was surprised the Imperials didn't hear his heart beat it was so loud. Creeping up behind the drop-pod he peered around it's side. There was a light in the trench. A rowdy group of humans were singing in drunken tones about females and something called "ass". Searching around inside the pod he found what he was looking for. He hefted the large box out. Just then one of the two moons decided to come out from behind a cloud. He was illuminated. He stopped moving. He stopped breathing. For almost a minute he stayed frozen. Th clouds obscured the moon again. The rest of the crawl was uneventful.

*

He was met with a heores welcome.

Kais walked up and shook his hand. "Well done trooper." he said

"O" Goran said "Can you do me a favour?"

"Sure Goran. What?" Kais asked.

"If I ever volunteer for something like that again I want you to shoot me. I should stick to demolitions" There was laughs and drinking all around. The only people not celebrating were the lookouts.

Vordan -ever the pessimist- shouted over the throng "So Keren what's in this mystery box?"

"Actually come to think of it yeah!" said Goran.

They gathered around as Keren typed the code. The box hissed open. Lifting the lid the men gasped.

"Keren I love you." Goran said. Inside was a tripod mounted missile pod complete with ammo. Goran the demolitions "expert" (though more like explosion enthusiast) had gone without equipment since early on in the Kronus campaign.

"Come morning Goran use that to break the stalemate." Keren told the men.

"I REALLY love you man" Goran said and started hugging him. The men laughed.

"Wait" Kaleel said. "Remember the Marnes Prime campaign when he got a missile pod?" Kais groaned. The damage had come out of his paycheck. 30,000 credits later Goran had said sorry. He was lucky he wasn't shot.

*

Private Harper wandered through his trench. The stalemate against the Xenoes had gone on too long. He just wanted it to be broken. Almost as soon as the thought came into his head a missile struck. The side of the trench collapsed in. Antoher missile struck blowing a small group of startled men to bits. As missile after missile hit Harper stayed hunched over in the middle of the trench. He thanked the Emperor he hadn't been hit and begged that he wouldn't be. After what seemed like an age the missiles stopped. They were so infrequent there could only have been one launcher, but so unexpected it didn't matter. Crawling from the smoking trench, trembling and holding his ringing ears he realized he was the only survivor. He looked up. The xenoes stood over him.

"And then there was one" said Vordan drawing his pulse-pistol.

"Stand down trooper" Kais said. And lifting Harper by his scruff Kais aimed his own pulse-pistol at him. "Where's the E.M.P cannon located?" he said.

"I-I'll transmit the coordinates to you if you spare me" The frightened himan said.

"Sounds like a deal" Kais said, and hooking his data-pad to the humans he downloaded the coordinates. He dropped the human, who stayed on the ground. "Lets go." The cadre headed off after Kais. As Vordan stepped over the trooper he stood on the mans neck breaking it.

"Oops" he said, smiling. His hate for the humans was notorious in the cadre. They found that out when he torched the house of a family of humans who had been accepted into the greater good.


End file.
